Kneady

This week has been odd.

Monday I went up to London to the office, and that was fine, no problem. Saw the counsellor at lunchtime, which was helpful. The journeys to and from were fine, no major drama or incident, thankfully. I walked both ways to and from Waterloo, which felt like an achievement, and the weather was reasonable.

Fucking tourists though. Bastards. Why do they walk in long strung-out groups, all holding hands and blocking the pavement? It's like being a fish in the middle of a fleet of ring-netting fishermen.

On Tuesday morning I decided to work at home, as I wanted to make some important non-work-related calls that I didn't want the rest of the office overhearing. By lunchtime I had decided to cancel attempting to get any work done, and simply take the day as leave, then decided to take Wednesday as well, as there were a lot of things relating to the recent shitstorm from Hades to try and sort out.

Work, fortunately, have been, and continue to be, brilliantly supportive and understanding.

I think as a result of having to make all the phone calls, I had a bit of a delayed shock reaction, involving tears and vomiting (nice!) but thankfully once that passed I felt better.

Anyhoo, I decided to take the rest of the week off work, and try and get Hades shitstorm stuff sorted. Which I did, to some extent.

The cleaning team came back on Friday, and the house is starting to look really nice. I even did some more of the ironing, which felt like much less of a chore as the rest of the cleaning was already done.

Yesterday we spent a large chunk of the morning in the garden, before the heavens opened. Mr WithaY cut the front hedge, which looks much tidier now, and even managed to mow the lawns without lopping any appendages off. I pulled up an entire wheelie bin full of weeds from the front flower bed, which was hugely satisfying.

Mr WithaY also cut down the spiky bastard bush by the dog/log shed in the back garden, making the whole place look and feel much bigger. I want to plant some climbing roses somewhere in that area, but will have a think about how the place will look first. I don't want to rush into anything and then realise it was the wrong decision.

It's a shame the weather is so shite again today, I wanted to cut the back hedge too, but it's too wet and windy right now.

Might go and make some bread, I feel the need to knead.

Nurse! The screens!

I am feeling much much better today. Thank goodness. So, back to work tomorrow. I was good and did some work at home today in the afternoon as I felt so much less crap than I have done for ages. It might explain why my sleep has been so disturbed over the last week or so, too. Having a temperature at night is horrible. I mean a high temperature, obviously everyone always has a temperature all the time. Unless they're a zombie. Or a vampire.

It's rained properly today for the first time in absolutely ages. I walked across the village earlier and it smells wonderful out there. Unlike last night; I was sitting in here, minding my own business, when a hideous unearthly stench filled the room. No, not from INSIDE, but from a huge tractor (with a shite-filled trailer) parked directly outside the house, stink emanating from it and filling my living space. Gah. Farmers.

I want to walk up to the woods to look at the bluebells. They must be out by now. We haven't been up there hardly at all since we lost the dog. It isn't the same, walking, without one. I still miss him. He was a mad bugger who bit people (hence the final sad, sad trip to the vet's) but we loved him.

I remember the day he got stung by a wasp. Mr WithaY had gone out shooting, and the dog and I were having a quiet day together at home. This meant that the dog would sit by the back door, sulking, then walk in to look at me, sigh heavily in a "You're not who I want" kind of way, then pad slowly back to lie by the door to continue pining and moping for Mr WithaY.

Anyhoo, he was out in the garden, leaping about and being an idiot when all of a sudden a small car came screeching round the corner much too fast. The driver lost control and it careered through next-door's front garden wall, scattering blocks and trees and debris everywhere with a huge crash. Of course, loads of people came rushing out of the pub and the petrol station nearby to see what was going on.

The passenger (a young bloke) leapt out and legged it off up the road, hotly pursued by a posse of big lads from the pub. They caught up with him by the river and brought (firmly but kindly, you understand) him back. The driver was more or less trapped, trying to drive the car out of the neighbour's garden, and failing because it was balanced on a pile of rubble with most of the wheels off the ground. Eventually he managed to kind of rock it back and more or less fall onto the road, but then the engine died. He sat there trying to re-start the car with transmission fluid and oil pissing out from underneath.

I went out and suggested he get out because the car was obviously completely fucked and he might well blow himself up if he kept trying to start it. He was in shock I think so did as he was told. At this point, the back door opened and a young girl scrambled out, very bruised and distressed. She hed been riding in the back with no seatbelt on and had smacked her head on the driver's seat. Lucky she didn't go through the windscreen.

Anyway, an ambulance turned up, followed by no fewer than seven (yes, count them - SEVEN!) police cars. The police started to haul the driver and his numpty mate off, the local posse happily explaining how he'd tried to do a runner and it was only due to their quick thinking that they were both still there. The girl got loaded into the ambulance.

And it was at this point that the dog started howling like a banshee.

I ran back to the house and he was spinning round in circles, shivering, a big old wasp stuck in him. I held him still and extracted the wasp, squashing it flat before the idiot dog tried to eat it. Comforting the dog, I went back to watch the action outside.

And it was to this scene that Mr WithaY returned from his trip. He'd driven past, seen the entire on-duty police force of Wiltshire and an ambulance outside our house, and parked up round the corner before coming home to see what had happened.

He walked past the crowds of uniformed guys, the broken car, the smashed wall, the weeping girl being bundled into the ambulance, the huge crowd of onlookers and said to me "What's going on?"

"The dog's been stung by a wasp!" I replied. Heh.

Currently Listening : No Quarter: Jimmy Page & Robert Plant Unledded By Page & Plant Release date: By 26 October, 2004



24 Apr 2007

Gah

I still feel crap.